Robert Ponsonby Author

Robert Ponsonby was Organ Scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, from 1948 to 1950, and President of the University Opera Club. Engaged by Glyndebourne in 1951, he organized the Festival of Sussex, a county-wide celebration, under the umbrella of the Festival of Britain. At the same time, he worked as assistant to the Director of the Edinburgh Festival, Ian Hunter, whom he succeeded in 1956. Resigning after the 1960 festival, he eventually gained a job with the Independent Television Authority. He returned to music in 1964, being appointed to administer the Scottish National Orchestra. His eight years in Glasgow were professionally happy and apparently successful, for he was head-hunted by the BBC, who in 1972 appointed him Controller, Music, in succession to William Glock. This post he held until 1985. He directed the Canterbury Festival in 1987 and 1988; and since 1985 he has filled advisory roles with the Purcell School, the Young Concert Artists' Trust, the Council for Music in Hospitals and Wingate Scholarship. Currently, he is on the Committee of the Michael Tippett Musical Foundation. He holds the Janaeek Medal from the Czech Government, is Hon RAM and was made a CBE in 1983.